3 ms·
asymptotic productivity of work, and winner take almost all nature of capitalism. seems like a very succinct way of explaining why people work so damned much A
by rhizome 9y ago
asymptotic productivity of work, and winner take almost all nature of capitalism. seems like a very succinct way of explaining why people work so damned much
A myth of capitalism is that the donkey can reach the carrot hanging from the stick if they work harder, that "almost all" can be won by those who are being driven to work more hours. However, this doesn't take into account that there are at least as many carrots-on-sticks as donkeys, and that carrots are cheap.
- the_cat_kittles 9y agoi dont get what you are trying to say. something about how its easy to mislead people into working long hours?
- rhizome 9y agoIn this context, that "the nature of capitalism" is not evenly distributed, though the rhetoric says it is.
- jrs95 9y agoWell personally I've come from a family where hardly anyone make a productive decisions, where nobody had a college degree, and a tiny portion are even middle class. And now I'm 22, self-taught, and make $70k a year in the Midwest. And I did get there by working endless hours and catching the carrot, repeatedly. I think the truth of how these things go is probably somewhere between where your typical anti capitalist and your typical social Darwinist would expect it to be.
- pcrh 9y ago>A myth of capitalism is that the donkey can reach the carrot hanging from the stick if they work harder That's the myth of the "American Dream", not Capitalism per se. Capitalism is more simple, if you have capital, you have control, and with control you can profit.
- valuearb 9y agoneither is true. Having capital means you will blow it a good portion of the time. Control is illusionary, just as it was for Sears, IBM, and Microsoft.